Your monthly guide to rental conditions in Hampton Roads. This is our October 2026 report, covering September 2026 rental data: what rents looked like last month, what's driving the market, and what it means if you own a rental home.
Hampton Roads Rental Market Snapshot — September 2026
Here's where Hampton Roads rents landed in September 2026, across all property types — apartments, condos, townhomes, and single-family homes.
Hampton Roads median rent hit $2,048 in September 2026, up 2.98% year-over-year, even as the region absorbed more than 12,000 civilian job losses since 2025. Homes are taking 35 days to lease, a pace that points to steady renter demand holding the market up despite significant economic headwinds.
| Metric | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Median Rent (All Types, Hampton Roads) | $2,048 | +3.0% YoY |
| Avg. Days on Market | 35 days | — |
Source: Doorstead market data, aggregated from public records and online rental listings, all rental property types, September 2026.
What's Driving Hampton Roads Rental Market Conditions Right Now
Hampton Roads Rental Supply and New Construction
The new supply pipeline has collapsed to near-nothing: only 648 multifamily units are currently under construction across the entire metro, spread across just 5 active projects. That's a dramatic pullback from the roughly 2,250 units delivered in 2025 and the 3,449 delivered in 2024. What little is being built concentrates in the Chesapeake and Suffolk growth corridors and pockets of Virginia Beach, meaning landlords in Norfolk, the Peninsula, and York County submarkets face almost no new competition from ground-up construction right now.
Why People Rent in Hampton Roads
Federal job losses hurt the region in 2025, but mortgage rates at 7.28% are keeping would-be buyers locked in the rental market, and military demand around Joint Base Langley-Eustis and Newport News Shipyard keeps the Peninsula humming regardless of broader employment shifts. Affordability pressure compounds that: a 2026 National Low Income Housing Coalition study found only 42 available affordable units for every 100 households at or below 50% of area median income here, which means even households trying to leave renting often can't. Desirable walkable pockets like Ghent and Larchmont in Norfolk and family-oriented York County neighborhoods in the Tabb and Grafton school zones draw consistent demand that doesn't move much with the economic cycle.
What This Means for Hampton Roads Landlords
September's median rent of $2,048, up 3.0% year-over-year, came in during the tail end of the summer leasing push, and the market is now shifting into its slower fall and winter window, so price realistically now rather than waiting for a rebound that typically doesn't arrive until spring. Hampton Roads' military community gives you a partial buffer against seasonality since PCS moves run year-round, but if your property sits outside a military corridor, expect longer days on market than September's 35-day average as the pool of active renters thins through the end of the year.
Hampton Roads Rent by City — September 2026
Chesapeake and Virginia Beach lead the table in leasing speed, with homes finding tenants in 27 and 28 days respectively, making them the strongest demand signals in the metro right now. Hampton is the clear outlier, sitting at 55 days on market, nearly double the pace of the next-slowest city, Norfolk at 43 days. Across the rest of Hampton Roads, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Newport News cluster between 33 and 37 days, putting the majority of the metro in a moderate leasing range with Chesapeake and Virginia Beach at one end and Hampton well behind the pack.
| City | Median Rent | 2BR Median | 3BR Median | Avg. DOM | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia Beach, VA | $2,359 | $1,934 | $2,425 | 28 days | +5.1% |
| Chesapeake, VA | $2,328 | $1,585 | $2,275 | 27 days | +0.9% |
| Norfolk, VA | $1,676 | $1,492 | $2,119 | 43 days | +2.9% |
| Newport News, VA | $1,653 | $1,333 | $1,936 | 37 days | +4.5% |
| Hampton, VA | $1,825 | $1,522 | $2,090 | 55 days | +2.1% |
| Portsmouth, VA | $1,665 | $1,403 | $1,984 | 33 days | +2.3% |
| Suffolk, VA | $2,203 | $1,568 | $2,315 | 34 days | -2.5% |
| Source: Doorstead market data, aggregated from public records and online rental listings, all property types, September 2026. Median Rent is across all property types. |
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Virginia Beach, VA: The Oceanfront and Town Center corridors pull renters who want walkable amenities without a long commute, and that sustained demand shows in the numbers. At $2,359, Virginia Beach posted the highest median rent in Hampton Roads in September, and even with a slight 0.3% month-over-month dip, rents are up 5.1% year-over-year, the strongest annual gain of any city in the table. Homes leased in 28 days, well ahead of the metro's slower markets.
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Chesapeake, VA: Chesapeake had the tightest market in Hampton Roads last month. Homes leased in just 27 days, the fastest pace in the region, and the $2,328 median rent climbed 1.6% month-over-month, the sharpest single-month gain of any city in September. At only +0.9% year-over-year, annual growth is modest, but the leasing speed suggests supply is not keeping up with current demand.
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Norfolk, VA: Ghent and Larchmont are among the most sought-after pockets in Hampton Roads, drawing young professionals who want walkability and proximity to downtown that most of the region simply cannot offer. Still, Norfolk's $1,676 median rent reflects its more urban, higher-density housing mix, and the 43-day DOM is the second-slowest in the market, suggesting renters here have slightly more options or need more time to decide. Rents did tick up 1.2% month-over-month and are 2.9% above a year ago, so the directional trend stays positive.
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Newport News, VA: Areas around Newport News Shipyard and Joint Base Langley-Eustis are absorbing demand quickly, anchored by a steady flow of military and defense-industry renters. Even so, the $1,653 median rent slipped 1.1% month-over-month in September, the steepest single-month drop in the table. The 4.5% year-over-year gain shows the longer-run trend is intact, so the monthly pullback looks more like a seasonal fluctuation than a structural shift.
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Hampton, VA: Hampton stood out for the wrong reason in September: a 55-day median DOM, the slowest leasing pace in all of Hampton Roads by a wide margin. At $1,825, it sits in the middle of the market on price, and the 0.1% month-over-month change was essentially flat. The 2.1% year-over-year gain is positive but mild, and owners pricing vacancies here should sharpen their numbers now to avoid sitting on an empty unit through the slower fall season.
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Portsmouth, VA: Portsmouth's median rent came in at $1,665 in September, down 0.7% month-over-month, with a 33-day DOM that is close to the regional average. The 2.3% year-over-year gain keeps Portsmouth in positive territory, though both the monthly softening and the mid-range leasing pace suggest owners should price carefully rather than assume quick absorption.
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Suffolk, VA: Suffolk is the one market in Hampton Roads where rents are running below last year's level. The $2,203 median dropped 2.5% year-over-year, the only city in the table showing negative annual growth, and month-over-month was flat at 0.0%. The 34-day DOM is reasonable, so homes are still moving at a normal pace, but owners should treat the year-over-year decline as a signal to price at or slightly below comparable listings rather than anchoring to peak rents from 2025.
Hampton Roads Rent by Bedroom Count and Property Type — September 2026
Rent by Bedroom Count in Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads rents follow a clear staircase pattern from 2-bedroom and up, but the 1-bedroom sits below the studio at $1,330 versus $1,470, a $140 inversion that likely reflects the smaller overall supply of studio units rather than any premium renters are placing on them. The jump from 2-bedroom ($1,548) to 3-bedroom ($2,164) is the widest single step in the table at $616, pushing larger rentals into a noticeably different price tier. From there, 4-bedroom rentals added another $580 to reach $2,744, a nearly parallel step up that keeps the upper end of the market on a steep trajectory. Across the full range, Hampton Roads renters face a spread of $1,414 between the cheapest and most expensive size on this list.
| Bedroom Count in Hampton Roads | Median Rent (September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Studio | $1,470 |
| 1-Bedroom | $1,330 |
| 2-Bedroom | $1,548 |
| 3-Bedroom | $2,164 |
| 4-Bedroom | $2,744 |
| Source: Doorstead market data, aggregated from public records and online rental listings, Hampton Roads, September 2026. |
Rent by Property Type in Hampton Roads
Single-family homes led every other property type in September 2026, with a median rent of $2,354 and a 25-day time to lease, putting them $307 (15.0%) above the blended metro median of $2,048. Condos and townhouses both came in below that blended figure, at $1,834 and $1,944 respectively, though both leased faster than the metro average at 20 and 31 days. Apartments sat at the opposite end of the spectrum: a median rent of $1,500, which is $548 (26.8%) below the blended median, and a striking 99-day DOM that dwarfs every other property type. That DOM gap alone signals that apartment supply in Hampton Roads was running well ahead of absorption in September.
| Property Type in Hampton Roads | Median Rent | Avg. Days on Market | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Property Types (Blended) | $2,048 | 35 days | +3.0% |
| Single Family | $2,354 | 25 days | +1.3% |
| Condo | $1,834 | 20 days | -1.5% |
| Townhouse | $1,944 | 31 days | +2.4% |
| Apartment | $1,500 | 99 days | +5.9% |
| Source: Doorstead market data, aggregated from public records and online rental listings, Hampton Roads, September 2026. |
Data Sources & Methodology
- Rental market data: Median rents, days on market, listing counts, and rent change figures. Sourced from county public records, deed and tax assessor data, and rental listings on publicly accessible platforms.
- Doorstead Platform Data: Internal leasing outcomes from Doorstead-managed rental homes across all property types, including days to lease. Trailing 12 months.
Data refreshed monthly. Doorstead benchmarks reflect managed properties only and may not be representative of the broader Hampton Roads rental market.